​A TRUE MAVERICK: Dallas Mavs owner MARK CUBAN goes gay

​BY DANIEL KUSNER

If you don’t know Mark Cuban’s rags-to-riches story, you’ve been living under a rock.

The blue-collar Pittsburgh native and University of Indiana graduate came to Dallas, started an Internet company in his bedroom so that he could listen to sports over the computer, then sold the company to Yahoo! for $5.7 billion.

With the money, he bought the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, as well as a $40 million Gulfstream airplane over the Internet (the largest Web transaction in history), a huge mansion in the Preston Hollow section of Dallas (where the colorful Dennis Rodman lived for a time in his guesthouse while playing for the Mavs) and a 45th-floor apartment in New York’s Trump Tower.

Needless to say, all of this has attracted a lot of media attention for Cuban.

When he recently appearance on CBS’s Late Late Show, host Craig Kilborn called him “America’s most entertaining billionaire.”

As the Mavs’ owner, he has been a lightening rod of controversy, getting fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for berating referees and other “conduct unbecoming a team owner.” He was also criticized for a mildly naughty interview he recently did with Penthouse magazine.

Cuban recently agreed to an email interview with Dallas Voice, in which he talked about his gay-friendly view of the world

IT’S BEEN REPORTED THAT YOU LIVE WITH YOUR GIRLFRIEND, BUT THAT YOU DON’T LIKE TO TALK ABOUT HER MUCH IN INTERVIEWS. DOES SHE JUST WANT TO BE A MORE PRIVATE PERSON THAN YOU? She is definitely a private person and doesn’t want anyone knowing her business.

HOW DO YOU IDENTIFY YOURSELF POLITICALLY? DID YOU SUPPORT GORE IN THE RECENT PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION? I define myself as being open-minded. I don’t support one party over the other, but rather look at each issue individually. As far as who I voted for, that’s one I will keep to myself.

DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF “GAY-FRIENDLY”? Absolutely. Some of my best friends... Just kidding. I am "every personal choice-friendly." Be yourself. Be true to yourself, and we all will get along just fine. I took many a date into Oak Lawn to go dancing at the Village Station. I used to go with some gay and straight friends on Wednesday nights to dance. Of course, back when I would go out a lot, ending up at Club One was a normal part of a weekend night.

DID YOU HAVE MANY GAY OR LESBIAN FRIENDS GROWING UP? It’s not a question I would typically ask, because I didn’t care. But yes, I have had lots of gay friends, and more gay business associates.

ARE THERE A LOT OF GAYS AND LESBIANS IN THE DOT.COM WORLD? Of course there are. That’s the beauty of the Internet and computer world — no one cares what you wear or who you share.

DIDN’T YOU TRY ACTING AT ONE POINT AND SPEND SOME TIME IN HOLLYWOOD? Sure. I loved it. I took acting lessons, did some movies that thank goodness only show up on cable very rarely. Acting was one of the hardest things I ever tried. Far harder than the business worlds. When I got back to Dallas, I took classes with Michelle Condrey and got an agent, and went on auditions and suffered the same humility that every actor suffers. Wearing stupid clothes and having to say some of the dumbest lines that make you wonder who wrote them. Trying to kiss ass with the casting directors. All the basic foibles of the acting world. Of course, if I was any good, you would know from my work.

WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO JOIN THE LIST OF COOL STRAIGHT GUYS LIKE OLIVER STONE, MICK JAGGER AND HUGH HEFNER WHO HAVE ADMITTED TO PAST HOMOSEXUAL EXPERIMENTATION? If I had anything to admit to, I would. I guess that keeps me from the cool category :), but I never really came close to anything happening, drunk or sober.

WHY DO YOU THINK THERE WAS SUCH CONTROVERSY OVER YOUR RECENT PENTHOUSE INTERVIEW? IS IT JUST A GENERATION GAP BETWEEN YOURSELF AND THE OLDER, MORE SEX-PHOBIC SPORTS ESTABLISHMENT?I don’t think it was the sports establishment — they pretty much left it alone. I think there are some holier-than-thou members of the media here in Dallas that try to make issues out of non-issues. Some places find censorship and condemnation a normal part of their business affairs. They were the ones who tried to make an issue of it. But as anyone with any sense would expect, it petered away on its own.

YOUR IMAGE IN THE MEDIA SEEMS TO BE ONE-THIRD BAD BOY, ONE-THIRD PLAYBOY, ONE-THIRD GEEK BOY.HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE WAY YOU’VE BEEN PORTRAYED? I don’t pay that much attention to it. I’ve enjoyed who I am for a long time now. The media can call me anything they want. I don’t take them, or myself, too seriously. Life is too short

DENNIS RODMAN IS SUCH A POLARIZING FIGURE. WHEN HE WAS PLAYING FOR THE MAVS, DID YOU GET THE FEELING THAT HOMOPHOBIA WAS PART OF THE REASON SOME PEOPLE DIDN’T LIKE HIM (NOT THAT THEY NECESSARILY THOUGHT HE WAS ACTUALLY GAY OR BI, BUT JUST BECAUSE HE HAD DABBLED IN DRAG, TALKED ABOUT LIKING TO HANG OUT WITH GAY GUYS AND DRAG QUEENS, ETC.)? No, I don’t think it was homophobia at all. It was interesting. I think the same media types I mentioned above had a problem with him,. But the rest of the world — particularly the kids — portrayed him as a cartoon or WWF-type character. No one really paid attention to Dennis the person. It was Dennis and the character he created. In a lot of respects, in my humble opinion, he played the media knowing what it took to get a response from them.

DID YOU GET ANY RIBBING FROM FRIENDS WHEN YOU INVITED DENNIS TO MOVE IN WITH YOU? The opposite. It was more like, “When’s the party?” and “Can we come over and hang out?”

WHEN HE LEFT YOUR GUEST HOUSE, IT WAS REPORTED THAT HE WAS LIVING AT THE CENTRUM AND HANGING OUT IN THE GAY BARS ON CEDAR SPRINGS. DID THAT CONCERN YOU? Why would it? He could hang out wherever he wanted to.

DID YOU NOTICE THE MAKE-UP OF THE BASKETBALL CROWDS CHANGE WHEN DENNIS WAS PLAYING? MORE GAY PEOPLE, DRAG QUEENS, OR OTHER ALTERNATIVE TYPES? Not really. More kids. But we didn’t get any calls from security about any drag queens in the ladies rooms.

WHAT ABOUT CHRISTIAN LAETTNER [WHO WAS RECENTLY TRADED FROM THE MAVS]? DID YOU GET THE FEELING THAT HE IS STILL HAUNTED BY THE GAY RUMORS THAT SPRANG UP AROUND HIM WHEN HE WAS IN COLLEGE? No, CL is smart enough to ignore the press. He has two kids, is happily married, and goes about his business pretty privately.

IT SEEMS LIKE THE ATMOSPHERE IN THE NBA — AMONG THE PLAYERS ANYWAY — IS A LITTLE MORE SOPHISTICATED THAN IN PRO FOOTBALL, BASEBALL OR HOCKEY. DO YOU THINK THERE’S LESS MACHISMO AND HOMOPHOBIA IN PRO BASKETBALL THAN IN SOME OF THE OTHER PRO SPORTS? To be honest, I don’t notice it either way. This business is very Darwinian — there is only one winner every year. And there are so many cultures already represented in the NBA that guys in the league tend to be very accepting and open.

AS THE OWNER OF THE MAVS, IS THERE ANYTHING YOU’D LIKE TO SAY TO THE DALLAS GAY AND LESBIAN COMMUNITY? Come to games and have fun! ​We want everyone in the Dallas community to support us and enjoy the excitement and energy of a Mavs game. I wish I had something more exciting to say on the topics, but the reality is, to me, sexuality is so not a big deal. And that’s the way it should be! Thanks!